How To Use A Windows ScanSnap On A Mac – Link Roundup
February 25, 2009
Update: It’s confirmed that the ScanSnap S1500 and S1500M include both drivers on the install CD. See this ScanSnap Cross-Platform post for more info. The rest of this post relates to the S510 and s300 series.
According to commenter “rei” on this ScanSnap S1500 post, the next version of the Fujitsu ScanSnap is going to work on both Mac and Windows – the only difference between the S1500 and S1500M is the bundled software.
If that is the case, that will be tremendous, but that doesn’t help you if you have an older ScanSnap for Windows that you want to use on your shiny new Mac.
It is possible to do, but believe it or not you have to hunt down some Japanese drivers to do it.
Here is a roundup of some links that show you how it is done.
The Mac Lawyer has an excellent step by step guide. Make sure you read all the way down through the comments as there are updated links to the driver software there. While the ScanSnap model that Ben is referring to is the 5110EOX2, some commenters have noted that they have got it working with newer ScanSnaps like the S300.
A link in the comments of the Mac Lawyer post led me to the My Punchbowl Blog. Scroll down to #10 in the list for a discussion of how he got the S510 working on his new Mac.
The granddaddy of all cross-platform-ScanSnap information is this MacOSXHints forum thread. It is long and goes on for a wide time period, so you may want to start at the end and work backwards to go by the newest information.
So, while I wouldn’t say getting a Windows ScanSnap working on the Mac is easy, it is clearly do-able. Have you ever “crossed the aisle” and got your ScanSnap working cross-platform? Leave your war story in the comment.
Men In Black Director Uses ScanSnap to Crush Screenwriters
February 23, 2009
The whole scanner-replacing-fax idea is certainly nothing new, but I enjoyed this article in Esquire by Barry Sonnenfeld, who is a TV producer and the director of Men In Black.
Instead of relying on faxes, he can now “efficiently harass writers from anywhere, at any time”:
My method of working is to scribble thoughts on the pages of all these various scripts and then send them back to the writers. The note they dread the most is a circled joke or a scratch through lines of dialogue with a huge “DB,” which means “do better.” I used to send these notes via fax, but thanks to the latest in digital technology, I no longer need a fax machine to do so (and just as important, the writers don’t have to be at a fax machine to receive them).
Sonnenfeld goes on to do a mini-review of the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510, its smaller cousin the S300, and the Xerox Travel Scanner 100.
His conclusion? For the travelling scanning mogul, the S300 is the way to go.
Macworld Gets NeatWorks and the ScanSnap to Behave
February 19, 2009
Many people have heard of the portable document scanner called NeatReceipts. NeatReceipts comes with a piece of scanning software called NeatWorks.
What happens if you want to use the NeatWorks software but don’t need the scanner part? Will NeatWorks play nicely with the Fujitsu ScanSnap?
If you have the newest version of NeatWorks, it will. From the software, you can choose to scan from the ScanSnap. If you have an older version, Ted Landau from MacWorld found out what you need to do:
As it turned out, to get things working, I had to select NeatWorks from ScanSnap Manager’s Application pop-up menu rather than go the other direction (selecting ScanSnap from NeatWorks, as I had been trying to do thus far). I now know this because, after contacting NeatWorks technical support, they directed me to a PDF document that explains it all in detail. After doing this, the pairing worked!
Do any of you use NeatWorks with the ScanSnap? Or do you like the NeatReceipts scanner better? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
Shoeboxed and TaxACT Trying To Make Taxes Easier
February 2, 2009
As we all know, but probably don’t want to admit, it’s getting to be tax time.
A while I got an email letting me know that Shoeboxed, who I have written about before, and TaxACT, an online tax filing service, have created a partnership to “make filing taxes and organizing receipts easier”.
Since making things easier and organizing are what this site is all about, I thought I’d mention it.
I don’t think they are saying there is any actual integration between Shoeboxed and TaxACT, but more like they want to let people know that the two services are complimentary.
Organize Electronically Then File Electronically
Looks like the idea is this:
- You use Shoeboxed to organize receipts etc by just dropping them in an envelope and letting Shoeboxed scan and categorize them
- Shoeboxed says that the scanned receipts are “an accepted IRS format for proof of purchase”. I’m not a tax accountant but that is what they say
- Then when it is time to file, file online using TaxACT for free.
Looks like a pretty decent workflow to me. Have any of you used Shoeboxed and/or TaxACT to organize your taxes?
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